Boone Olson/ The Mainstream
Students can take the CLEP at the UCC Testing center, located in the Educational Support Building
Testing center now open for CLEP exams
A CLEP college course exam, which can substitute for an entire class, could save a student time and money while providing the college credit needed to accomplish career goals faster. Umpqua Community College has the tools required for the CLEP exam process.
A CLEP is “a way to gain college credit without taking a class if you are knowledgeable of the subject,” Ellis Poole, UCC’s testing center coordinator, says. “I clepped out of four classes, which saved me thousands of dollars and more importantly time.”
CLEP stands for college level examination program. Poole spent part of his 40 to 50 hours that he and UCC’s Director for Student Engagement Marjan Coester put into updating UCC’s website on CLEP exams. The CLEP information can be found under the Advising quick links and the testing link on the Advising page.
Common classes to CLEP out of are languages such as Spanish, writing courses such as WR121 or WR122, and math classes like MATH111, according to Poole. There are a total of 34 classes to choose to CLEP out of and all of them can be found and registered for at CLEP.collegeboard.org.
Collegeboard is a non-profit organization that prepares and administers standardized tests used in college admission and in placement and course challenges.
The process is started at the Collegeboard website where students must first register for the specific CLEP course they desire to take. A Collegeboard account must be created and then, after the student registers for a test, a location can be selected. UCC’s testing center must be chosen. Appointments can then be made with UCC to take the exam. The exam fee is roughly $89. Poole says that available appointment times for taking the CLEP at UCC are 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The time frame ends at roughly 1:30 p.m. because some of the tests could take up to 2 hours, Poole says.
For those wondering if they are knowledgeable enough to take a CLEP, there are online resources for tests which Collegeboard provides. They offer books available for study and practice tests.
Another similar option is Modern States.
Modern States is a non-profit organization which provides videos, practice tests and questions as well as additional videos on the CLEP exam a student desires to take. A course taken according to Modern States’s guidelines will earn a student a reimbursement for their CLEP registration fee; they pay for the first 10,000 students’ tests.
“The difficulty of taking the CLEP is individual based,” according to Destiny Hunt, a UCC student advisor, and practice tests are available from Collegeboard or Modern States.
Students are introduced to the CLEP in a variety of ways, “I asked a teacher. He brought it up,” student Tristan Wood said.
Currently near 3,000 colleges and universities accept CLEP credit. The Collegeboard has created their own search tool which shows the colleges and universities that accept CLEP credit.
“If I knew about the CLEP, I definitely would have taken it,” regrets Jared Wilson, a UCC student.
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